Joda: Despite police stepping up efforts to curb illegal mining, porous interstate borders have fueled a rise in mineral smuggling from Keonjhar district into Jharkhand. Police from Bamebari police station under the Joda mining circle have intensified action against mineral theft in remote forested areas, including Gurubeda, Jurudi, Jalahari, Khandabandha, ITC, Jaribahal, Kalimati, Nayagarh and Pidhapokhari.
During raids in the 2025-26 financial year, police arrested 32 people and seized seven loaders and JCB machines, 20 trucks carrying illegally mined minerals, three SUVs and a motorcycle, Bamebari IIC Jhasaketan Bhoi said.
Acting on intelligence inputs, police carried out raids — sometimes in plain clothes and at other times in uniform — to crack down on the suggling. Despite risks from wild animals and possible attacks by smugglers in dense forests, police have continued enforcement drives, seizing vehicles and machinery involved in the illegal trade and arresting those engaged in mineral smuggling, Bhoi said.
However, the crackdown has failed to deter smugglers, who continue to use machines to extract minerals from abandoned forest areas with the help of some locals and transport them to states such as Jharkhand and West Bengal. The ore is also supplied to factories in Sundargarh district. Large-scale illegal mining and transportation continue in the Tankuna reserve forest under Barbil police limits.
Iron ore is allegedly being moved from border areas near Tankuna along the Odisha-Jharkhand boundary to crushers operating in places such as Badajamda and Nuanmundi in Jharkhand. While the Odisha government has shut down iron ore crushers within a 50-kilometer radius of mining zones to ensure transparency, illegal stockyards have reportedly been set up in areas such as Nuanmundi and Badajamda across the border to facilitate the movement of stolen ore from Odisha.
Smugglers are taking advantage of forest routes and gaps in border patrolling to transport minerals with relative ease, sources said. Following the state government’s zero-tolerance policy on illegal mining, the Keonjhar superintendent of police has directed police stations to intensify enforcement, leading to increased patrolling across several jurisdictions.
Between 2012 and 2015, state-level enforcement teams had carried out crackdowns on illegal mining sites in the Tankura reserve forest. However, with enforcement easing in recent years, the area has again become a hub for illegal mineral smuggling.
